The WA Police Excellence Award winners were announced at a special breakfast event at Crown Perth on Thursday 10 December 2015.

Individual category winner

The winner of the individual category was Senior Constable Brett Jeffrey from the Great Southern Family Protection Unit for going above and beyond service standards in protecting victims and children of domestic violence.

Senior Constable Jeffrey is a Family Protection Officer who deals with victims and children living with or fleeing domestic violence. He is a committed and professional officer who makes assisting victims of domestic violence a priority. He possesses excellent people skills, has a generous capacity for empathy and performs all of his duties with passion and commitment.

Senior Constable Jeffrey maintains strong networks with external agency partners, working closely with the Department of Child Protection and Family Services, Anglicare, Albany Women’s Centre and Corrective Services to develop effective intervention strategies for families at risk of harm and those who are repeat victims.

He works towards excellent outcomes in every case he is involved with. He has a strong knowledge of criminal offences relating specifically to family and domestic violence and provides expert advice to frontline investigating officers whilst maintaining contact with victims throughout the process. 

He is able to build rapport with victims and children, giving them the courage to provide evidence, when they might not otherwise do so, and maintains regular contact with them to reduce the risk of further harm and violence. Many victims contact him directly as they have such a high degree of trust and faith in his understanding of issues. Even past perpetrators are often friendly and speak openly about their issues with him man to man.

Senior Constable Jeffrey’s work in this field is exemplary and this award not only recognises his outstanding commitment to victims of domestic violence but the impact that domestic violence is having on the communities of Western Australia.

Finalists in the individual category were:

• Senior Sergeant Craig Davis, Officer-In-Charge of Midland Police Station, Central Metropolitan District
• Senior Constable John Foster, Youth Crime Intervention Officer, Youth Policing – Community Engagement Division.

Police team category winner

The winner of the team category was the Major Crash Investigation Unit for being exemplary in their duties whilst showing compassion, kindness and respect for the family members and friends of road crash victims.

Major Crash Investigation Unit are involved in complex investigations into, often fatal, road crashes to determine the cause of the crash and report on all findings of the circumstances. The investigating officers not only have to conduct technical and expert investigations but also personally interact with the family and friends involved to provide them with answers to assist them through the trauma of losing a loved one.

This team was nominated by several family members of road crash victims for their empathy and openness in dealing with their cases, allowing the family members to discuss the impact of their loss while learning about the information collected, and the trial process, giving them a greater understanding of the procedure.

The determination the officers display and their ability to work together so effectively enables them to more thoroughly investigate crashes and this award highlights the importance of the role that Major Crash Investigation Unit can play in positively impacting on grieving family members during a difficult time in their lives.

Finalists in the team category were: 

• Mirrabooka Detectives, North West Metropolitan District
• Operation RIPSTOP, Child Abuse Squad – Sex Crime Division

Minister’s Award for Innovation in Policing

Also presented at the Nine News WA Police Excellence Awards breakfast event was the inaugural Minister’s Award for Innovation in Policing. This award was introduced to highlight the many innovative ideas that WA Police Force employees have been contributing over the past two and a half years to assist in refining current police practices by improving efficiency or cutting red tape. 

Also announced at this year’s awards, was the winner of the inaugural Minster’s Award for Innovation in Policing Award was Sergeant Phil Ward from South East Metropolitan District for his role in improving the Police Incident Management System to make it quicker and easier for all officers to identify priority tasks. 

Minister for Police, Liza Harvey, said that while it was a simple idea, it had the potential to significantly enhance the quality and timeliness of police service to the community and investigation of matters.

“This was an innovation that simply needed to be brought forward and acted upon. Before this enhancement, a business unit could have as many as 250 to 300 incident reports on its active list, with no effective way of sorting them. From now on, it will be so much easier for supervisors to prioritise investigations based upon perceived harm to the community, threat or opportunity to solve” Mrs Harvey said. 

The system enhancement came into effect in June this year.